The Boston Bruins fell to the New York Rangers Tuesday night, 2-1, in a shootout. The shootout took nine shootout rounds before the Rangers took their 31st win of the season.
Charlie Coyle opened up the scoring early in the first period with a goal which came due to a turnover by Barclay Goodrow that gave Coyle and Craig Smith an odd-man rush. Coyle fed a one-time pass to Smith and then picked up the rebound to score his 11th goal.
The second period came and went with the Bruins still up 1-0. Rangers led the period in shots 15-9 and shots were tied at 17 apiece going into the third.
After a whole two periods without penalties, four penalties were committed within the final 10 minutes of the third. Filip Chytil ended the stalemate as well as the donut on the scoreboard for the Rangers. His fifth goal of the season was his first in exactly a month, scoring once against the Flyers on January 15. Taylor Hall had a chance to give Boston back the lead on a breakaway, but Igor Shesterkin made a masterful glove save to keep it tied at 1s.
K’Andre Miller committed the first penalty of the game, but the Rangers killed it and a scuffle was shortly presumed. The hard-hitting third period continued as Tomas Nosek and Jacob Trouba took simultaneous penalties, netting a 4-on-4 late in the game. To end the period, Charlie McAvoy took a tripping penalty to give the Rangers a late power play which the Bruins killed to force overtime.
In overtime, Shesterkin made yet another game-saving stop on a Bruins rush. Soon afterward, Smith ran into the goalie and pushed the puck in with his hand. Smith got a goaltender interference penalty for that which caused a mugging from a bunch of Rangers players and a roughing penalty from Alexis Lafreniere. With 40 seconds left, Shesterkin got pulled for concussion protocol due to the lingering effects of his collision with Smith.
In the shootout, the Russian netminder came back and earned a loud applause from the New York crowd. Jake DeBrusk scored on the opening shot, and Mika Zibanejad answered on Swayman in the opening round. Artemi Panarin and Coyle kept the shootout going past round three by scoring as well. After nine rounds of Bruins skaters and eight of Rangers, Miller finally ended the game by scoring on Swayman.
Swayman played his best back-to-back games of the season in the shootout loss. Swayman saved 33-of-34 as well as 8-of-9 in the shootout. Swayman’s save percentage in his last two outings is .984 and remains the team leader in save percentage.
Shesterkin continued his phenomenal play on the season. He came into the game with a .937 save percentage which increased by him saving 31 out of 32 shots.
The Bruins hope to bounce back against another Metropolitan team in two nights when they take on the New York Islanders. The game will take place in Elmont, NY as the B’s continue their road trip. Puck drop is at 7:30 p.m. EST in the last game of the Bruins’ road trip.
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